If one more writer complains about Avatar stealing their idea, I'll scream!

Brutal Mustang · May 19, 2010

This article isn't the first time I've heard an unpublished writer whine James Cameron stole their 'incredibly unique' idea. Seriously, in every ten writers I talk to lately, there is a moron who claims either of the following:

"I thought up that story in my mind when I was a kid. James Cameron must have stolen my idea through telepathy."
"I wrote that book when I was a teenager, and trunked it! I don't know how he stole it!"

Oh, and then there is another group of people saying:

"Avatar is copying Fern Gully."
"Avatar is copying Dances with Wolves."
"Avatar is copying Pocahontas."

So? It's a classic story, which has been over-told in many ways. A lot of movies do this. Why is Avatar any different?

Sheesh. I swear this film is drawing the loonies from the asylums!

Cyia · May 19, 2010

Sheesh. I wrote this story a dozen times. Only they weren't blue. Not on another planet. No psychic trees. No pterodactyl warriors. They weren't in fake bodies. There's no home tree.

But it's totally there in the base elements.

Is this a class action thing anyone can get in on or what?

/sarcasm.

(actually, I agree with the commenter on the article about The Last Airbender. I was really confused when Avatar came out because I was expecting the other one.)

thothguard51 · May 19, 2010

You know I wrote that script while napping on a late night flight to L.A. and James Cameron was setting in the row behind me. Those must not have been normal head phones he loaned me...

Brutal Mustang · May 19, 2010

Soccer Mom · May 19, 2010

OT, but I totally can't wait for Last Airbender. And yeah, I was confused at first.

kaitiepaige17 · May 19, 2010

Omg when are people going to realize that NO idea is unique to them? Yeah, I'm sure anyone on this forum could have come up with the concept of Avatar, but it's all about who makes it work FIRST.

I mean, it's the same with book publishing. Agents can reject a QL or manuscript strictly because they see too much of that particular story. And FYI to people, Avatar was beautiful visually, but it wasn't the most unique story idea I'm afraid. The main concept--guy goes to war, falls in love with the enemy, then fights for the "enemy"--has been used several times. The story wasn't unique, it was just changed in ways that made it different.

Margarita Skies · May 19, 2010

kaitiepaige17 said:
Omg when are people going to realize that NO idea is unique to them? Yeah, I'm sure anyone on this forum could have come up with the concept of Avatar, but it's all about who makes it work FIRST.

I mean, it's the same with book publishing. Agents can reject a QL or manuscript strictly because they see too much of that particular story. And FYI to people, Avatar was beautiful visually, but it wasn't the most unique story idea I'm afraid. The main concept--guy goes to war, falls in love with the enemy, then fights for the "enemy"--has been used several times. The story wasn't unique, it was just changed in ways that made it different.

Quoted For Truth!! :Thumbs:

M.R.J. Le Blanc · May 19, 2010

I don't know why people would be so insulted, not just because it's an old concept. The only good thing about Avatar was the graphics - the storyline was terrible. I expected better from James Cameron.

kaitiepaige17 · May 19, 2010

MagaliFuentes said:
Quoted For Truth!!

It's how I roll.

mscelina · May 19, 2010

Well, the real truth is that Avatar was stolen from me. I write in 3-D.

damn that copycat anyway...

Shadow_Ferret · May 19, 2010

I think it was stolen from Harlan Ellison. Or was that Terminator?

PEBKAC2 · May 19, 2010

Soccer Mom said:
OT, but I totally can't wait for Last Airbender. And yeah, I was confused at first.

I'm with you on this! I love the anime. My kids and I are going to catch this for sure.

shaldna · May 20, 2010

I think we've all written this story at some point.

So what's that telling ya?

Becky Black · May 20, 2010

Brutal Mustang said:
This article isn't the first time I've heard an unpublished writer whine Jame's Cameron stole their 'incredibly unique' idea. Seriously, in every ten writers I talk to lately, there is a moron who claims either of the following:

"I thought up that story in my mind when I was a kid. Jame's Cameron must have stolen my idea through telepathy."

"I wrote that book when I was a teenager, and trunked it! I don't know how he stole it!"

It's telling that you refer to "when I was a kid" or "a teenager". Looking back now I know that pretty much every idea I came up with when I was a teenager was incredibly derivative and I've now seen them written by other teenagesr a zillion times - just with different names.

I doubt it's deliberate, it's probably just the way our minds work at that age, absorbing so much and starting to understand how stories work. Naturally the first ideas we have fall into familiar patterns that we see over and over in other people's work. It's only later we start to figure out how to put a unique twist on the same classical structures and basic scaffolding that so many stories are built on.

Dawnstorm · May 20, 2010

Brutal Mustang said:
"Avatar is copying Dances with Wolves."

You know, my favourite characterisation to date was:

"Dances with Smurfs"

Ugawa · May 20, 2010

Dawnstorm said:
[/LIST]
You know, my favourite characterisation to date was:

"Dances with Smurfs"

Damn. I was gonna mention that.

That was my idea, you stole it from me!

x

Cyia · May 20, 2010

I don't really see any difference in the "OMG, I wrote that first!" claims surrounding Avatar than those that come with any (ultra) successful franchise. It's happened in movies before with the Matrix among others. It's happened in books with Harry Potter and Twilight among others.

The more popular something is, the more people will want a piece of it. And if they've worked on something even remotely similar, I think there's a bit of fear involved that the success of the one will diminish the marketability of the other because it will be seen as an impostor. Trying to get it on record that "author XXX" had "idea XXX" at the same or before the person who published/produced "book/movie XXX" is about vindication as much as it is monetary compensation.

Go take a look at the thread about WIP's published by someone else. It happens all the time. Two I can think of from writers here (that were mentioned way back when I first joined) were someone who wrote a kid's book staring a heroic ogre only to have Shrek hit theaters and someone who wrote a book about a bespeckled orphan wizard in training with a protective scar on his head only to have HP hit shelves.

People are exposed to common ideas, that will inevitably send their thoughts in common directions every once in a while.

If someone seriously thought they had the means to prove they'd written a billion dollar movie, and that it had been stolen in a significant enough way that it could be proven, they wouldn't just be asking $75,000. That's pocket change by comparison.

Brutal Mustang · May 20, 2010

Cyia said:
I don't really see any difference in the "OMG, I wrote that first!" claims surrounding Avatar than those that come with any (ultra) successful franchise. It's happened in movies before with the Matrix among others. It's happened in books with Harry Potter and Twilight among others.

Oh it's always happened with other films. But Avatar trumps them all, at least in my experience--I chat with so damp many people who say their idea was stolen, and that they are REALLY upset about it and ... that they think there was some honest-to-goodness sci fi/supernatural technique Cameron used to steal it from them!

shaldna · May 20, 2010

Brutal Mustang said:
Oh it's always happened with other films. But Avatar trumps them all, at least in my experience--I chat with so damp many people who say their idea was stolen, and that they are REALLY upset about it and ... that they think there was some honest-to-goodness sci fi/supernatural technique Cameron used to steal it from them!

and I bet those same people think Elvis is dead.

Celia Cyanide · May 20, 2010

Dawnstorm said:
[/LIST]You know, my favourite characterisation to date was:

"Dances with Smurfs"

hahahaha! I love that episode! I also think it's really funny because I have often heard people complain that "Avatar is not original," followed my, "my friend calls Avatar Dances With Smurfs!" like they're the first one that thought of it!

DeleyanLee · May 20, 2010

Cyia said:
If someone seriously thought they had the means to prove they'd written a billion dollar movie, and that it had been stolen in a significant enough way that it could be proven, they wouldn't just be asking $75,000. That's pocket change by comparison.

I knew a guy who had such a claim--and a legit one. He created and published RPGs and actually got a tape of the writers of the blockbuster movie saying that they out-and-out napped the core idea from one of his games during an interview.

It never hit the media because once his lawyer touched base with the (IIRC) 114 points of similarity between the movie and the game, the company was MORE than happy to settle out of court for a substantial 7 figure deal.

Last I checked, he was still getting an on-screen nod on the sequels and the various TV series spawned by it, as well as a small creator's cut.

If you've really got the goods, it's really sweet. Thing is, without so many points of similiarity with an already copyrighted (his was over a decade over than the movie) work, there's not a case.

Phaeal · May 20, 2010

Brutal Mustang said:
So? It's a classic story, which has been over-told in many ways.

Over-told. That's an interesting, and telling, neologism in this context.

EmpoweredOKC · May 20, 2010

(I actually do think it ripped off Pocahontas. Right down to some of the same camera shots.)

DeleyanLee · May 20, 2010

(Yeah, but it was better than Pocahontas, so I'm good with that.

)

Dungeon Geek · May 20, 2010

I know writers who seem totally delusional about who steals their ideas. If something is even remotely similar, it was stolen from them. "Avatar had a soldier on a jungle planet in it. My short story on a critique website 10 years ago had a soldier on a jungle planet in it! I've been robbed!"

If one more writer complains about Avatar stealing their idea, I'll scream!

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